September 1, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, host Jeremy Julian speaks with Erin Hooper, head of Sales and Customer Success for Franchise Systems AI. They discuss the innovative end-to-end franchising system that Erin and her team have developed to streamline processes for franchisors and franchisees. Aaron shares insights about the platform's customizable marketing campaigns, sales applicant portals, project management for site selection, vendor integration, and ongoing location management. Jeremy highlights the uniqueness of Franchise Systems AI in consolidating multiple systems into one platform, addressing common pain points in franchising. This episode is packed with valuable information for anyone involved in franchising, offering a comprehensive look at how technology can enhance operational efficiency and overall success.
00:00 Franchise System
00:14 Introduction and Guest Introduction
01:55 Erin's Background in Hospitality and Franchising
02:58 Overview of Franchise Systems AI
04:40 Marketing and Sales Process for Franchises
05:53 Customizable Applicant Portal
13:00 Onboarding and Training for Franchisees
14:44 Site Selection and Vendor Integration
20:10 Challenges in Project Management
20:27 Integrating Vendors into the Platform
21:12 Ensuring Franchisee Compliance
22:29 Post-Opening Support for Franchisees
23:59 Operational Management Tools
24:37 Marketing and AI Integration
26:36 Audit and Training Systems
28:29 Sales and Labor Analysis
29:58 The Unique Value of Franchise Systems
32:07 Pepper Lunch as the Alpha Brand
35:40 Engaging with Franchise Systems
36:50 Final Thoughts and Surprises
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
This is the RestaurantTechnology Guides podcast,
helping you run your restaurantbetter.
In today's episode, we arejoined by Aaron Hooper.
Aaron heads up the sales groupfor a new franchise system that
(00:22):
came to market that, quitefrankly, blew me away when she
shared with me what they weredoing.
And so when she shared it, Isaid, I've gotta have you on
the, on the podcast to sharethis with the world.
And so I'm excited for ourlisteners to get to see and hear
what her and the team havebuilt.
Really, it's an.
End-to-end franchising systemthat can help you both inquire
(00:46):
and onboard franchises and getthem up and successful.
While the majority of theirexperiences in restaurants, it
would work for tons of differentfranchise systems that really
need to have a consistentworkflow.
It's a great project managementtool and it eliminates so many
of the other tools that mightneed to.
Be used in the world offranchising.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
(01:07):
I am the Chief Revenue Officerfor CBS North Star.
We sell the North Star point ofsale product for multi-units.
Please check usout@cbsnorthstar.com and now
onto the episode.
Jeremy Julian (01:19):
Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us as I see each and
every time.
I know you guys have got lots ofchoices, so thanks for hanging
out today.
I am joined by a new friend of,the business, new friend of the
podcast.
I'm gonna let Erin introduceherself and then we can talk
about what, outside of all ofthe other amazing things she
does in life, which she gets todo professionally now.
So Erin, why don't you introduceyourself to our listeners?
Erin Hooper (01:41):
Yeah.
Hi.
Thanks Jeremy for having me on.
yeah.
My name's Erin.
I, head up se.
And customer success forfranchise systems ai.
So a new end-to-end, franchiseoperating system.
Jeremy Julian (01:53):
Yeah.
And I'm intrigued to get intothat.
But, tell me a little bit aboutyour background.
How did you even get into thebusiness?
'cause I think there's gonna besome people that are gonna
recognize maybe the face, maybethe name, maybe some of the
family history there as well,
Erin Hooper (02:04):
yeah, no, there's definitely some connections
here.
but my background actually ismostly in hospitality, so I
really started off, with hotelsand resorts, working in Vail,
Colorado, all the way out toCalifornia.
a little stint in Miami andFlorida.
So I mostly oversaw cateringand, sales of private.
So luxury events at differentproperties.
I was last with, RosewoodMiramar Beach out in Montecito.
(02:26):
and, my father though has beenin the franchise world since I
was a kid, so I have grown upadjacent, and learning from him
my whole life.
restaurants and franchising.
and then, yes, my husband isTroy Hooper, who I know you
know, and has been on the showbefore too.
and so I really came into, theworld with him as I left my
career in, hotels andhospitality to come and join the
(02:49):
team with franchise systems.
So he is part of the reason itgot, started and I get to come
in and now, be a face and helpsupport.
Jeremy Julian (02:57):
Yeah.
No, and I love it.
And you, shared with me what youguys have been building, but at
a high level, why don't you giveour listeners just a preview as
to what you guys are doing, andthen we'll dig into why you guys
felt like it was such a criticalpiece to help franchisees and
franchisors to be successful intoday's day and age.
Erin Hooper (03:13):
Yeah, and I think a good way to talk about that
initially is where we started,because this did start with,
Troy and Pepper Lunch, when hegot brought on in 2023 with
them, they're looking to, reallybuild everything from the ground
up in North America.
So Pepper lunch was.
established, in over 17countries, but, not in the US
yet.
And so this started from a need,so a need to, build a brand, a
(03:35):
need to build a tech stack, andrunning up against issues that I
think a lot of brands face, asyou're trying to piece all of
these things together andworking with a ton of different
product.
and it went through a lot ofiterations and Jonathan
Whiteside, who's our founder,ended up coming, on the team,
with Troy, and he was taskedwith that to figure everything
out, and was trying to find asolution that worked and there
(03:57):
really wasn't a, solution.
And he said, let me build it.
So ended up building, franchisesystems from the beginning.
So what it, the overarching kindof concept is that it is a fully
end to end.
Operating system.
So its intention is to givefranchisors really complete
ownership and oversight of theirentire network, and really bring
together all these differentsilos we end up working in, into
(04:20):
one streamlined platform, so itallows for oversight and to be
able to scale and grow.
Jeremy Julian (04:26):
Yeah.
No, and I think it's a, I thinkit's pretty amazing.
'cause again, you and I talkedabout the amount of systems that
you guys are trying toconsolidate is pretty
significant.
Yeah.
I think it's no less than eightor nine different systems that
current franchise businesses aretypically starting with.
So when don't we start at thebeginning, because I know it
really as a franchise or you'reconstantly out trying to sell
new franchisees, you're tryingto attract attention.
(04:48):
Trying to get them to engagewith the brand and figure out,
from an onboarding perspective,who's out there who might be
looking to bring on this brand.
Is that kind of where you guysstarted with the product?
And then, why don't we walkthrough why that might be
different than some of the otherthings that are out there that
might be out off the shelf, CRMor off the shelf marketing
analytics or whatever else.
Erin Hooper (05:07):
Yeah.
So yeah, you're exactly right.
So when the concept was created,we started chronologically.
'cause where does it start?
Obviously in the beginning, weneed to be marketing our brand,
so we need to get the name outthere and.
That can be slow, that can bevery manual.
So from a sales process and Ican personally relate to that
coming from sales of events asyou're chasing down leads, it
(05:29):
feels very manual and it's veryreactive as opposed to being
proactive.
And so that is where it started.
So from the beginning, our firstsort of.
Department, we refer to them asmarketing.
And so this is your prospects,your cold leads, any lists you
get or, that you can upload.
And you can create customcampaigns to encourage them to
become, to buy into the salesprocess.
And they end up becoming a leadin our system.
(05:51):
And that's where we get into oursales department.
And then your sales.
Is A CRM, but it's more thanthat.
What we've created with thesales department is an applicant
portal, and what this does isallows brands to build this
journey for applicants to beable to go through, to
self-discover what the brand isall about.
It's fully customizable, ofcourse, so it's based on, how
(06:12):
you wanna represent as afranchisor, how you wanna
represent your brand to thesedifferent applicants.
And what it does is allows youto.
Self allows these leads to selfqualify, and you're able to hone
in and focus on the ones thatare showing the most interest.
and you can track everything.
So you can see when they signedup, how many steps they've gone
through already, and all ofthese different steps within the
portal, can be videos or fillingout information that you need.
(06:35):
And so you can very quicklydetermine who's qualified lead,
who's not, and it reduces a lotof this friction, this back and
forth and chasing and notknowing where you are.
Jeremy Julian (06:45):
and traditionally, Aaron, in that
case, that would typically be afranchise advisor that would be
taking that phone call andhaving to deal with one-on-one.
They may be dealing withsomebody that is interested,
that but doesn't have thefinancial qualifications, might
not have the geographic phonequalifications, might have zero
restaurant experience orwhatever those things are, and
that typically is a human thatwould be doing that.
(07:05):
I'm assuming, I don't know.
tell me what are peopletypically doing?
I think on the marketing sideit's, it's some collateral, it's
some emails, it's some textmessages, those kind of things,
which is great.
It's awesome, get those thingsin there.
So I think that's similar towhat you might have from a
Salesforce or from a, some ofthose, MailChimp or constant
contact, those type of things.
But when, once we get into thesales process, really, how is
(07:25):
that historically done?
Is it typically just like achecklist and somebody's
manually, or emailing going backand forth?
Is that typically how it's done?
Erin Hooper (07:32):
Yeah.
And you can see a lot where, youknow, an initial kind of reach
out to us for, for moreinformation.
And maybe you have a form, onyour website that might ask for
a little bit of criteria.
but that's all you get right upfront.
And then it's sitting on in yourlap.
So ball's in your court, whatare you gonna do with this?
Are you gonna call them?
Are you gonna email them?
How much time are we spending?
diving in deeper and like yousaid, jumping on that call.
(07:53):
And what are your initial kindof.
Qualifiers, is it previousexperience?
Is it multi-brand or,multi-unit?
Is it, access to funds, sowhatever that is.
Yes.
You usually have a sales team oran FSO or somebody who is
manually coming out, followingup with these leads and getting
that information.
whereas when you come into ourapplicant portal, those can be
some of your initial questions.
(08:14):
And as the sales representative,I'm now going in.
And I can see my leads that camein that day, the info that
they've already put into thesystem, and I can immediately
see if they're qualified or not.
So now it's either a quick emailtouch base, with your, thanks,
but no thanks.
Or it's still a phone call.
It's however you choose to dobusiness, but it just gives you
the data more, efficiently andquickly so you can make those
(08:35):
kinds of decisions.
Jeremy Julian (08:36):
No, and I love that idea that you guys have
built that.
One of the first questions thatI had when you were going
through the product with me ishow customizable is it?
We've had many franchise brandson the show before, and some of
them look for one thing andanother looks for another thing.
They sell franchises a differentway.
They, the Chick-fil-A model isvery different than the Jack in
the Box model First franchising,and again.
(08:56):
Love both of'em.
Both great brands, both do verysuccessful in their markets, but
they have a very different go tomarket strategy.
And so help our listeners tounderstand how customizable is
it to this specific brand versuslet's just rubber stamp it.
This is the way everybody shoulddo franchising.
learn from us.
We're better than everybodyelse.
Erin Hooper (09:12):
Yeah, exactly.
every single brand I've talkedto has, different qualifying
factors, different motivations,different needs, different
strategies for growth, and wecan't be successful if we're a
one stop shop or a one size.
Fits all because one size neverfits all.
So it needs to be customizable.
We need to be able to adapt andmode model to what it is that
(09:34):
the individual brands want andneed.
from a customizable standpoint,we are going to do the initial,
legwork.
So we're not gonna hand yousomething empty and say, go
ahead and build what you need.
we're gonna get you 85% of theway there, and then everything
is customizable.
So however you want.
This journey in the beginning togo.
If it's just watching videos, ifit's slider presentations forms,
(09:56):
you can create as many differentsteps as you like.
And it's very easy as the userto be able to go in and update
that, because that's one of theother things that you know, Troy
was experiencing in thebeginning is if I'm.
With, I have a brand or I havea, a SaaS product I'm using and
I need to go in and make achange.
It's gonna take me three monthsand, X number of dollars just to
(10:16):
be able to update something thatshould be mine.
So we really believe this dataand this platform is yours as
the brand, so you should be ableto edit it.
So everything's a no code build.
You're able to go in, updateyour portal.
You can change questions, addthings, delete things, hide it
so it all is very user friendlyand completely customizable into
how individual brands do theirbusiness.
Jeremy Julian (10:39):
I love that.
one other thing that you hadshared with me that I think is
magnificent about the product isthe fact that it's not just let
me pepper you with questions.
You can also intersperse thingsabout the brand.
Hey, we're looking in thisareas, this is why this such is
value proposition.
This is what we understand.
Whether that's videos, whetherthat's presentation, whether
(10:59):
that's Word documents that theyread or any kind of collateral
is that.
Is are you finding that back andforth allows them to get
ingratiated?
Because they may self-selectsaying, you know what, this is
not for me after I get throughthat process, is that some of
the stuff that you guys areseeing.
Erin Hooper (11:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
we talk about this from afranchisor perspective, but it's
also designed from a potentialfranchisees perspective.
your first impressions are themost important, how fast are we?
Getting back to people ortalking to them, or how are we
introducing our brand?
That's essential.
And so when you build it from afranchisee perspective, if it's
just question, that doesn't feellike a relationship yet.
(11:34):
So being able to mix and matchthis with, let me tell you what
it is that we are trying tobuild here and why we're excited
for you to be a part of it.
It balances this give get.
We're gonna give you a littlebit about us, but of course we
need to know some info too.
So let's balance this experienceand what it looks.
Psych so it creates, a processthat is, great for both sides.
someone's really getting tounderstand and have their
(11:55):
questions answered'causepotential franchisees are gonna
have a lot of questions, so wecan go through and really answer
those as you go, but also getinformation from them in the
meantime.
It's a win-win on both sides.
Jeremy Julian (12:07):
And I think from that perspective, the fact that
it's even a systemized thing.
'cause I've watched franchisecoordinators make these phone
calls and they ask onefranchisee, potential
franchisee, one set ofquestions, they make a whole
bunch of assumptions and thenthey find out later it's not
been working or they failed tolaunch or whatever those things
might be.
So the fact that you guys havegot this system where it's
iterative and it continues tolearn and continues to go
(12:29):
forward post this interactionof, I'm interested.
So we've got the leads outthere, we've got the.
Marketing.
Now I've gone through thisprocess of, yes, I'm interested,
I want to open a pepper lunch.
I wanna open up a pepper lunch.
And I know that there's onecoming close to home.
I'm pretty excited about it.
text Troy the other day saying,Hey dude, when is this coming?
I better get, friends and familyopening for that.
'cause it's close to the house.
(12:49):
I know exactly where it's goingnow.
but now I get past that.
Again, most franchise systems ormost of kind of the sales and
marketing side might cut offthere, but I know that's not
really your guys' plan.
So it's really takes you all theway through the rest of it.
So what would the next module orthe next kind of system be for
franchisors as they start tolaunch?
Erin Hooper (13:08):
Yeah.
I think that's one of the thingsthat we've seen and experienced
too, is that when you have allthese different platforms or
different ways that you're usingdifferent products, you're
moving people between one andthe other.
So you might have a pro, I'musing this product to target my
prospects.
I'm using this one to actuallytrack as my CRM to track my
leads.
And then as soon as we get intoonboarding, it's something else
new.
(13:28):
So that's what's different aboutfranchise systems too, is that
we brought this funnel all intoone location.
So the person in the data andall the info moves with them.
So we've gone from prospect,we've gone to sales, a lead, and
now they're going to become afranchisee.
Now they move into theirfranchisee portal.
And so they're able now to gothrough the same process they
just did as an applicant, butnow going through their
(13:50):
onboarding, and then they'retraining and then into full,
location management.
So we go into projectmanagement, site selection.
The whole nine all the way downthrough location launch and then
monitoring your business fromthereafter.
So it really brings everything,when we say end to end, it's end
to, we hope there is no end.
You just keep going.
Jeremy Julian (14:07):
Yeah.
Hopefully you keep growing andyou keep doing that.
And so we're, I guess as youguys go, and again, I've been
doing this for more time grayhairs in my goatee.
I've watched people fail from,they sign up all of these
franchisees.
I actually have a friend whobought a franchise three years
ago, still has not been able toget a training and get a site up
and running.
and he is disappointed and he isfrustrated and they have his
(14:28):
money.
And now it's tense because nowit's, they won't, And so how
does that typically happen,through franchise systems?
take, walk me through thatprocess because that is a hard
part.
Site selection's a big deal.
Training, get, it is a big deal.
Supply chain's a big deal.
All of these things are bigparts of things.
And help me understand how doyou guys build that out and help
franchisors and franchisees?
(14:50):
To get into a place where theycan be successful is going back
to that same idea of systems andprocesses that you've got,
checklists, walk me through someof that, Aaron.
Erin Hooper (14:59):
you're entirely right.
I think that a lot of times yourgoal and focus is we need to
self franchisees, selffranchises, and then if you
don't fulfill those promises orwe stop right there and there's
not a plan going forward, thisultimately isn't a path to
success.
Have to have good structure andgood processes going forward.
And what we've built and createdis a system that's going to
(15:20):
continue that experience for thefranchisee and continue that
oversight from the franchisor tosee what's going on.
So let's say you have someonethat comes on board and they've
done a 10 store deal.
So the franchisees is going toconvert into their app, into
their portal, and now they have10 different location.
Projects that are automaticallycreated.
(15:40):
and these project templates,again, are customizable, as you
mentioned, very flexible, butit's all customizable to what
that process looks like for eachbrand.
So it goes through and, there'sgoing to be those normal steps
everyone goes through in termsof site selection, vendor
onboarding, ordering product,getting the stores ready, and
all of that is built in to thisintegrated and really.
(16:01):
Task oriented project managementsystem.
So instead of it being, Hey,here's a checklist, here's all
the things you need to do on apiece of paper, what this does
is really allows you to puttask.
orient or it, it does tasks thatare specifically designed to,
encourage movement.
So this, if your first one is,Hey, I need to fill out this
(16:21):
form, or if a task is going tobe onboard with a vendor, it
isn't just, Hey, let's onboardwith this vendor and you put a
check mark at the end.
It's, this is your point ofcontact.
Their calendar is integratedinto the system, book a call,
and now you're onboarding withyour vendor in a more seamless
way rather than here's the 19different people you need to
reach out to.
Good luck.
and as the projects go on, itcan be if then, so if you've
(16:44):
done this step, then you get tomove to the next one.
yeah.
So it
Jeremy Julian (16:47):
so even in that case, so let's take my friend
who is trying to open up afranchise.
He has struggled because he,whoever the guy is, the real
estate person, it's a brand thatdoes do drive through and they
need a drive through.
And it's a, it's a specificvertical concept.
It's desserts, it's streets,it's, beverages, whatever.
And so they can't be in certainareas where there's a beverage
only concept.
But they need the throughput,but they need the traffic.
(17:09):
And so site selection is a bigdeal.
They understand that, I meanfor, if I were to ask anybody
out there, site selection isprobably the largest, area of
opportunity for any of thesebrands as restaurants
specifically, because you needthe traffic in order to drive
the business.
And so in his case, had theybeen on franchise systems, what
would have looked differently?
He would've known, here's myguy, that's my real estate guy
(17:30):
that I need to be working with.
Is that kind of, again, I wannatry and paint the picture that
says I have a.
Current friend who's strugglingwith this and had that brand
been using this, what would havelooked different?
Erin Hooper (17:40):
Yeah, so exactly any of the supporting team from
the brand side is going to beinto the platform as well.
And so if part of those steps isthis is who you need to work
with on site selection, theplatform is designed to really
track all of this.
however, individual, if there'sindividual, processes or ways
that we're going through anddetermining, the best sites,
that person is going to bedirectly integrated into the
(18:02):
platform to be able to workdirectly with the franchisee.
So they know, and there's atimeline built out.
So if this is a, typically a twomonth project or a three month
project, this is how long it'sgonna take for your site
selection.
So you have some visibility intothat too.
This isn't an overnight, thisisn't, something that we're
gonna have a site that's alreadyready to go.
This is a process, but we'regonna work with you on it.
And you have resources to beable to continue that
(18:24):
conversation.
So it's not just radio silence.
Jeremy Julian (18:27):
Love that.
And as a vendor who sells intothe franchise systems, I guess
help me understand even as avendor, why this would be so
critical.
Because I, I love the fact, andagain, you and I talked about
this, when we had ourpresentation of it, like we
struggle because sometimeswe're, we get forgotten about,
we get forgotten about, we sellpoint of sale.
Anybody that's listening to thecall, this show for any length
of time knows that we sell pointof sale and we get the call that
(18:48):
says.
Hey, we forgot to tell you we'reopening the store in two weeks.
We need a system and we have asix week timeline, and now we're
stuck and now we're robbing fromPeter to pay Paul.
Or they might have to wait.
They're opening, and again, samething.
I've seen it happen with hoodsand stoves and ovens and all of
it.
And so with that, does thevendor get to participate in
this conversation?
And if so, Say your FDD says youhave to select this point of
(19:10):
sale.
Do they get to play a part inknowing both the franchisee
knows, Hey, here's who you needto contact and the franchise or,
and the supplier, partner,whoever that is.
It could be your food supplier,it could be your HVAC supplier,
whoever it is.
Do they get to interact withinthis platform with those people?
Erin Hooper (19:27):
Absolutely.
Because you would, you would notbe surprised, but there are so
many
Jeremy Julian (19:30):
no.
I know.
I've been living it my wholelife and I'm only one portion of
it, but I, we literally sentsomebody, I think I told you
this story.
We sent somebody to a property,they forgot to order their front
door.
It was a glass swinging door,and they're like, Hey, we're
ready to open.
And we're like, dude, you haveno lock on the door.
And we shipped all of ourequipment, so we laugh about it,
but it's true.
But somebody needed to decide,Hey.
(19:52):
What was the etching that wasgonna go on the glass that was
gonna go on this door?
And they didn't get the etchingdone.
It was three weeks delayed andthey delayed the opening, thus
delaying revenue, creation forit.
So sorry to interrupt you, butit happens every day.
Erin Hooper (20:04):
every day, every time.
And you would just, you wouldthink that there would be
something that's like, how didwe get here?
How did this happen?
How did we not keep organized ontop of that?
But it's because there's so manydifferent parts and pieces.
Somebody probably needed toapprove the design for the door.
Someone that needed to approvethe word, the vendor needed to
get a quote back.
you go back and forth and onething gets missed and suddenly
we don't have a front door.
(20:25):
So it's an exact, it's a perfectexample.
So yes, the way that this is,that our project management is
built out is to invite thosevendors.
That you're using into theplatform.
Now we have two ways about this.
There is going to be, if thereare certain brands that in their
FDD, they require use of X, Y,and z different vendors, they
will then be automatically builtinto, that this project that
says, Hey, we need to onboardwith your POS.
(20:48):
Have your calendar synced in,you're able to book something
with them and whatever theprocess then looks like.
if there's materials that canactually be put into, franchise
systems, we can do that.
If you, there's a trainingvideo, if there's a step-by-step
guide, if there's a form thathas to be filled out before this
vendor can really onboard you,we can design all of that within
this project.
So now you're going through andall of these steps are built in
(21:09):
and you have those, okay, wecan't move on to.
to this next phase of openinguntil you've confirmed that we
have a POS system or we have afront door, or we ordered
silverware, like any kind ofexample.
But this allows you not only toensure that your franchisees are
ordering from the right vendors,the right products.
but it allows, the franchisorand whoever's overseeing this
(21:30):
pro, this franchisee to be ableto go in and make sure, so
you're seeing this, it's notcalling up and saying, Hey,
how's it going?
And you hear the, oh yeah, we'regreat.
Everything's good.
We're on track.
And then lo and behold, yourealize there's no pos.
Jeremy Julian (21:43):
Yeah, that they ran down a Spartan final for
napkins'cause they need to opentomorrow.
And they didn't have
Erin Hooper (21:47):
exactly.
So you know, all of that.
Jeremy Julian (21:49):
Been there, done that.
seen it, seen the silverwarething, the plastic silverware
that they had to go buy in thelittle packets that, it, it
just, it happens because there'snot systems like that out there.
Is that
Erin Hooper (21:59):
That is fair.
And so what, it really is beingable to bring all this together
in a space that lets you, itguides you as the franchisee.
So it's that support system too.
And it's, and it's visibilitylike it's seeing what's coming
next.
So what do I need to startthinking about, but what do I
need to think about?
12 months out versus what do Inot really need to think about
until three months?
(22:19):
So you're prioritizing your timeand you're making this more
efficient.
And this, you said earlier, thisdelayed opening that costs
money, and that's exactly theopposite of what we're all in
this business for,
Jeremy Julian (22:29):
Yeah, absolutely.
and again, just to recap, so youguys help with the onboarding,
bringing them into the system,you help them get open, but I've
seen a lot of franchisefranchisees do all of those
parts amazing, but then suck atmanaging the stores after they
open.
So talk me through how franchisesystems can help with post.
Go live post opening.
How do we make sure that thestores are running efficiently,
(22:51):
that they're taking care ofguests, that we're getting guest
feedback, that sales are wherethey need to be, that labor's
where they need to be, that foodscores are where they need to
be, that reviews are where theyneed to be.
'cause I know all of those,again, been doing this a really
long time.
I've watched lots of brands sellhundreds of units and then fail.
I've watched lots of brands thatpick the wrong locations and
fail, not manage all, theymanage the front side great, but
(23:12):
then they suck at making surethat they're delivering the
product in the way that theyneed to.
So how does franchise systemshelp to ensure that Pepper Lunch
is gonna be able to get to 2,300, 4, 400 stores in the US and
be successful?
Because nothing hurts a brandworse than upset franchisees
that aren't pouring into theirbrand'cause they're not making
any money and they're notsuccessful.
Erin Hooper (23:31):
Yeah, we talked about that first hurdle of just
getting the franchise sale, andthat's where it can drop off.
But here's your next drop off.
We've now hit the finish line ofour location launch.
We're live and everyone takes adeep breath and is Cool.
We made it.
But this is really now just thestart.
I joke that we're end to end andnot really an end because we
don't want you to end.
We want you to continue to besuccessful and what are the
(23:51):
tools that you need to continuethat as once you're open.
And so this is where ouroperation side is now coming
into full view.
So in this, in the platform,you're now able to manage your
full location.
From everything and you get intogranular details.
So starting off with, hours ofoperation, you can update that
from the platform out toeverywhere your listings are.
(24:13):
You're, we're integrated withthe POS systems that you use, so
you're able to quickly access,all of your data and reporting,
say from your POS system.
We're also going into SEO andreputation, so we can see what
your feedback is, what yourguests are saying.
You're able to respond to yourguests.
In the system to be able to keepthat relationship going and know
(24:33):
where it is that you stand.
and then it continues fullmarketing.
So we have an entire marketingcalendar that's built in so you
can schedule out, if it's amonth out, two months out,
schedule out your posts.
And as a franchisor, if you'rehaving your franchisees do their
individual marketing, thisallows you.
Still have that oversight.
So I can still go in, see whatthe stores are posting, make
sure it aligns, for the brandmarketing and messaging and how
(24:56):
you wanna be conveyed.
but now you've scheduled all ofyour, monthly postings all
within the platform, and you'reable to, our AI really supports
in this sense too, of, let's sayyou're.
Putting out, marketing posts andsomething really takes off.
Now the AI SMART sees this andsays, Hey, this went really
well.
Let's do that again.
Or Let's build off of this tocontinue this growth.
(25:18):
And now you have smart marketingwithin the platform as well.
But you keep going.
There's even more.
So you go in.
Jeremy Julian (25:24):
I was gonna say we made it 25 minutes without
talking about ai, so I'm proudof you for that.
because all too often,especially on a tech show, I get
to hear about ai about 30seconds in, we got all of the ai
and, as I, I talk to a lot ofoperators, they're like, I don't
care about ai.
I just want it to tell me whatto do to make my business
better.
Which at the end of the day.
What that AI for marketing isgonna do is gonna tell you these
(25:44):
posts are resonating with yourguests.
Go post more of this, whetherthat's pictures of your food or
whatever else.
So what else is it that you guysare putting into the platform
that you guys think are gonnahelp operators to, to operate
better?
Because really, again, at the,once we've got'em sold, once
we've got'em opened, now it's,and again.
We pay for secret shoppers.
I personally go out to brandsthat we work with and I'll text
(26:04):
the CEO.
I'll text Troy and be like,dude, this sucked.
Here's a picture of my food.
This was bad.
And again, it's not a, I'm notgonna go post it online, but I
do that for friends in theindustry, but people that hurts
a brand quite a bit.
So talk me through some of theother things that you guys are
helping to make sure that peopleare successful with
Erin Hooper (26:20):
Yeah, we'll come, I'll say that.
And then really quick back onthe AI piece.
'cause I agree, I think it canbe a real buzzword right now.
And so it feels very much oh,it's AI this and AI that, we
have a well established kind ofAI support.
That's very natural andingrained in the platform.
We can talk more about thatlater, but, but I agree with you
on that front.
but some of the other thingslike you mentioned, we go into,
audits.
So you're always gonna have,that monitoring and that's where
(26:43):
you're talking about continuedsuccess.
Let's make sure we're doing itright.
Plates are, dishes are createdthe right way.
in the beginning everything isSOPs and how we're doing this
and everything is really by thebook.
And then that can fall offpretty quickly once you get into
different habits or bad habits.
And so keeping up with that.
So not only do you have, say,training checklists, SOPs, your
team is invited into theplatform to have access to that.
(27:05):
So even your line level staffcan get an invite to come into
the platform.
Everything is role-basedpermissioning, so they do not
need access to sales and FTDsand anything above, Side of what
their purview is.
But if they need openingchecklists, closing checklists,
training modules for refreshers,and, okay, I'll say another AI p
that's in this, we're gonna havean AI search capability that if
(27:26):
you come in and just say, Hey,what's the capacity of the fryer
oil, again, it's going to searchall of the data, the documents
you have uploaded in theplatform and can either tell you
where to find that answer orjust tell you what the answer
is.
So you're able to use it againin a smart way.
But this gives a resource.
For, from line level to you'restill your store managers of
access to assets that they need.
(27:47):
you're also having audits.
So you're doing audits of thestore.
you're able to have all of thistake place through the platform.
And then if there is something,say that fails in an audit, it's
going to automatically createtasks that are then going to be
assigned to the appropriatepeople.
Can help rectify that.
So if it's visibility, if it's aminor, maybe it doesn't need to
go up to the franchisor level,but if it's a, important thing
(28:09):
that's failed, anybody thatneeds to know will end up
knowing about that.
But then it doesn't just stopthere and say, oh, you failed.
It's going to put the steps inplace of what we need to do to
rectify this.
What was the training that wasmissed?
Was there a checklist that theywere supposed to be using that
they weren't?
It's gonna figure that out andthen let you know, here's what
we need to do to not let thishappen again.
Jeremy Julian (28:30):
Got you a similar idea, Aaron, on, sales and
labor, again, you guys havecertain food cost metrics, you
have certain labor metrics, byregion obviously, but are you
guys helping to say, Hey, salesare way down.
Let's talk and call, and thefranchise coordinator and those
kind of things.
Have you guys gotten to thatpoint?
Because again, there's thingsyou can do to help drive top
line sales to reduce costs whensales are down, they got bad
(28:52):
weather.
Utah and they got a snowstormnow, Hey, we gotta cut labor
faster.
We gotta make sure we don't haveas much supply.
What, whatever it might be.
Are you guys helping at thatpoint yet?
Erin Hooper (29:00):
there's going to be, I think one of the most
important things is when you'retrying to analyze success or
lack thereof.
So if you're trying to look atsomething and say, Hey, we're
not doing so well, why You needdata?
In order to do that, we need toknow what it is.
So when you're aggregating allof these different, points of
information, you're able to thenget a clearer picture as to
what's going on.
So you're able to see reviewsand if there's, those are
(29:22):
consistently providing acertain, messaging that's gonna
give you more of a.
Clear pathway, but because youcan integrate everything from
your sales, popular items,popular times, customer
feedback, and then even yourteam level.
So your team's invited in andyou can have different chats or
different areas for them to beable to communicate with each
other.
You now have a sense of yourteam morale too, so you're able
(29:43):
to see all of these differentthings and now make more
informed decisions and seewhat's.
Going on or what we need tofocus on or help improve.
and that's one of the, thevalues and the power of having
everything in one sort ofdashboard to be able to see, and
analyze and manage.
Jeremy Julian (29:57):
Yeah.
I'm gonna pivot a little bithere.
Aaron, we talked about this.
What else out there does thisother than 12 different systems?
Because, I genuinely, and I saythis, I get the privilege to sit
at the forefront of a lot ofpieces of technology.
I've been in the industry for areally long time, and when I got
(30:18):
a chance to see some of whatAaron and the team have been
building, I went.
There's gotta be something elseout there that does this.
And I then went on a late night,chat, GT search to go try and
find some of this stuff.
And there's not, there'sportions that fix the fourth
portion.
There's portions that pick, fixthe second portion.
There's lots of different backoffice tools that are aggregated
that fix the third portion, butI was not able to find it.
(30:40):
Is that kind of why you guysended up building it?
Erin Hooper (30:43):
That's exactly why, and I will be honest, I had the
same thought that went throughmy head.
Jeremy Julian (30:47):
It's like there's gotta be something out there,
right?
Erin Hooper (30:49):
like, how is this makes too much sense.
So what am I missing here?
But that was exactly where itstemmed from, where we're trying
to find something that solvesthe issues.
You have individual productsthat do, that do some pieces of
it, and you need to bring allthese different things together.
But the other thing that's veryprominent right now is the SaaS
fatigue.
there's so many differentproducts and costs can just.
(31:11):
Add up and it's minuscule.
But if you've got 19, pepper,lunch, use 19 different SaaS
products, it adds up.
And so coming from that andtrying to find something like
this, to your point, therereally isn't there.
There, there are some who areclose, but just doesn't take it
to the depth and the level thatwe've built.
when we started this.
It.
we said this is what we need todo and honestly, ideas grow and
(31:33):
we, if it started in one pieceof it, I really just need a
better CRM.
But then it was like, what's thenext step?
So this is what Jonathan, his,how his mind works, he goes,
what happens next?
And what happens once the, itbecomes a franchisee?
And what about this and why isthat all manual?
Why are we using spreadsheetsand why are we introducing
people by email?
Why don't we just bring it allinto one?
And so that's just where we saidthis is what it has to be.
(31:55):
This needs to be everythingbecause there's a need for it.
and there isn't a solve.
So let's be that solve.
Jeremy Julian (32:02):
Yeah.
No, and I think it's incredible.
again, I'm gonna pivot one moretime.
You guys are eating your own dogfood, as they say.
So at PEPPER lunch, you know thebrand that, that your husband
and, dad work for are working atPepper Lunch using the system.
Is that, were you guys clientnumber one?
Did you guys build it foryourselves and then decide, Hey,
we're gonna commercialize this?
Is that kind of how the wholething went about?
Erin Hooper (32:20):
Yeah, exactly.
It actually did really startwith, Hey, this is just the
solution that we need, and we'rejust gonna build it.
And it was gonna be internal forpepper lunch.
and then as it continued togrow, and this idea really
became into fruition of it beinga full end operating system,
there was really this light bulbof Hey, other brands could
really benefit from this too.
Why don't we actually turn thisinto a complete product that can
(32:42):
be available?
and Pepper Lunch is the Alphabrand.
So everything's tested throughthem.
They've been on the platformfor, almost 18 months now, and
we run everything through them.
and it just provides, it's.
Built by franchisors forfranchisors is how we like to
say, because you said it earliertoo, of we're not handing you a
product and saying this isexactly what you need.
(33:02):
it's going to fix everythingwhen we don't know what the
problems are.
that can be a real challengewhere you have somebody that
develops and they think they'resolving for issues that
franchisors face, but they'renot.
So this came from real worldexperience, the real problems we
were experiencing and feelingand built to solve those.
So there's a lot of feedbackthat's put in, and we do have
other brands.
(33:22):
We have several other brandsthat are on as well as our beta
testers who have, come on earlyand are providing us the
feedback as well.
And one of the things I am mostproud of is that our team is
incredibly flexible and open andresponsive to feedback, because
as you say, you build somethingand we think it works perfectly
for the way that it's built, andyou get some feedback and you're
(33:43):
like, man, you're right.
Let's do that.
And so we can make thosechanges, we can make those
updates, and we can flex.
So if there's, ways or systemsthat you're just a brand's Hey,
I have to use this is core intohow I've built my entire, brand
or strategy.
let's talk about it.
If we can integrate it, make itwork.
We, we wanna have thoseconversations as well.
So we look at this as apartnership.
(34:03):
we really wanna come in and helpreally do what we say we wanna
do.
We wanna help brands grow andscale in a way that is
efficient, and gives themsuccess.
And so it doesn't, it, it onlymakes sense that we work
together as a team on that tomake sure that it's successful
for each brand that joins withus.
Jeremy Julian (34:20):
and I'm certain that some of the reverse
feedback, you're talking toother franchise groups and
they're going, oh, we shouldadopt this at PEPPER lunch'cause
it'll make us better as a brand.
I'm certain that's happening.
The other thing that I guess,for those that are less familiar
with the Pepper Lunch brand, asAaron said, is.
huge overseas and they've comeinto the US and are starting to
take the US market, and growingquite rapidly.
(34:40):
I know outside of Mark, there'salso Paul Tran who has run a lot
of other successful franchisebrands in the past, so I'm sure
that's a another, ace in your,ace up your sleeve that can
help.
hey, this is how it worked atHalal.
This is how it worked at Roll'emUp, or any of the other brands
that he's worked with.
Is that, is that where some ofthat feedback comes from
Erin Hooper (34:57):
Absolutely.
And Paul's expertise, on thesales side, but we have him
twofold.
So he's on the franchise salesfor Pepper lunch, but he's also
a Pepper Lunch franchisee.
So we're launching theoperations side of this within
the next month.
and that's going to be a lot ofthat feedback straight from him
is that you, you see this onboth sides.
You're experiencing it from, asales and trying to market out
(35:17):
and get.
more franchisees to come onboard, and you're an existing
franchisee, so how is thisworking for you on that end as
well?
So it's wonderful that we'reable to have that direct contact
and connect to get really great,feedback as well.
Jeremy Julian (35:29):
Yeah, and I think, some of my favorite
interviews are those that arepeople that scratched their own
itch of a problem that they had,and they said, you know what?
We gotta go figure this thingout.
And, there's probably sometherapy session that we all need
to sit through being restaurantpeople for our whole lives.
But, so Aaron, how would peopleengage?
what does that engagement looklike?
How do they learn more ifthey're out there and they're
like, I want to be like them.
I, after we talked, and I knowyou, I said this before I hit
(35:50):
the record button.
I have at least 10 brands andI'm like, oh my gosh.
please just sign up for thisthing.
'cause it'll make life so mucheasier for me as a supplier
partner outside of the factthat, for them it would just
help organize their lives in somuch of a better, and easier
way.
Erin Hooper (36:04):
Yeah.
So great.
Next steps.
I love, I connect personallywith everyone who's coming in
to, explore the platform.
We'll do a demo together whileI'll be able to really show you
how it works from the Pepperlunch side too.
so our website is.
Franchise systems.ai, or you canemail me directly.
I'm justaaron@franchisesystems.ai.
and we'll get together and havea chat and I like to get to know
whoever I'm talking with aboutwhat are the pain points that
(36:26):
you feel, because I'm sayingthat we have a franchisor on our
team who's providing the issues,but as we've talked about, every
brand is different.
So I need to hear specificallywhat it is that you're
struggling with or what's beenthe thing that you feel like is
keeping you from growth.
And then let's talk about howfranchise systems.
Fixes that for you.
we like the conversations to bepersonal and, let's get on a
call, talk through all of that,and take it from there.
Jeremy Julian (36:49):
Awesome.
one last question that I'm gonnajust, throw at you, and if
you're not at a place to answer,what's been the biggest surprise
that you've come up with?
what's the biggest learning thatthe team has gotten getting into
the software business and trulytrying to put a stamp on the
market and stamp on, on what itis that, that you guys can do to
help make the world a betterplace?
Erin Hooper (37:09):
That is a good question.
I think that one of the thingswe, there's a balance between
figuring out how you can solvemultiple problems and also
understanding that you're not.
You're not going to beeverything to everyone.
We are never, we want our ideasto be big.
Our platform, has become thisfull end-to-end system, but
we're never gonna be a POS.
(37:29):
Product, like product, that'snot where we are.
So it's this balance of let'ssolve for the things we know we
can and we can do well, andlet's partner with where we,
where it doesn't make sense forus.
and I think that's a good thingto have.
So we're able to keep theserelationships with other
vendors, with other things thatmake a lot of sense and are
having great success in theindustry.
we're not trying to be,absolutely everything, all in
(37:49):
one.
We're just gonna be, 90% of it.
Jeremy Julian (37:52):
I love it.
thank you for sharing, Aaron.
Thank you for sharing the story.
I love, since you shared more indepth and shared some
screenshots and stuff, it'sbeen, bouncing around in my
head.
So I'm glad that I got, got achance to do the interview, get
things out to our audience guys.
Like I said at the onset, I knowyou guys got lots of choices, so
thank you guys for hanging outwith us this week.
If you haven't already checkedout, franchise Systems ai,
please go do And lastly, if youhaven't already subscribed to
(38:14):
the show, please Give us asubscribe on any of your
favorite platforms and make it agreat day.
Erin Hooper (38:20):
Thanks, Jeremy.
Thanks for listening to TheRestaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit restaurant technologyguys.com for tips, industry
insights, and more to help yourun your restaurant better.
This is the RestaurantTechnology Guides podcast,
helping you run your restaurantbetter.
In today's episode, we arejoined by Aaron Hooper.
Aaron heads up the sales groupfor a new franchise system that
(00:22):
came to market that, quitefrankly, blew me away when she
shared with me what they weredoing.
And so when she shared it, Isaid, I've gotta have you on
the, on the podcast to sharethis with the world.
And so I'm excited for ourlisteners to get to see and hear
what her and the team havebuilt.
Really, it's an.
End-to-end franchising systemthat can help you both inquire
(00:46):
and onboard franchises and getthem up and successful.
While the majority of theirexperiences in restaurants, it
would work for tons of differentfranchise systems that really
need to have a consistentworkflow.
It's a great project managementtool and it eliminates so many
of the other tools that mightneed to.
Be used in the world offranchising.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
(01:07):
I am the Chief Revenue Officerfor CBS North Star.
We sell the North Star point ofsale product for multi-units.
Please check usout@cbsnorthstar.com and now
onto the episode.
Jeremy Julian (01:19):
Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us as I see each and
every time.
I know you guys have got lots ofchoices, so thanks for hanging
out today.
I am joined by a new friend of,the business, new friend of the
podcast.
I'm gonna let Erin introduceherself and then we can talk
about what, outside of all ofthe other amazing things she
does in life, which she gets todo professionally now.
So Erin, why don't you introduceyourself to our listeners?
Erin Hooper (01:41):
Yeah.
Hi.
Thanks Jeremy for having me on.
yeah.
My name's Erin.
I, head up se.
And customer success forfranchise systems ai.
So a new end-to-end, franchiseoperating system.
Jeremy Julian (01:53):
Yeah.
And I'm intrigued to get intothat.
But, tell me a little bit aboutyour background.
How did you even get into thebusiness?
'cause I think there's gonna besome people that are gonna
recognize maybe the face, maybethe name, maybe some of the
family history there as well,
Erin Hooper (02:04):
yeah, no, there's definitely some connections
here.
but my background actually ismostly in hospitality, so I
really started off, with hotelsand resorts, working in Vail,
Colorado, all the way out toCalifornia.
a little stint in Miami andFlorida.
So I mostly oversaw cateringand, sales of private.
So luxury events at differentproperties.
I was last with, RosewoodMiramar Beach out in Montecito.
(02:26):
and, my father though has beenin the franchise world since I
was a kid, so I have grown upadjacent, and learning from him
my whole life.
restaurants and franchising.
and then, yes, my husband isTroy Hooper, who I know you
know, and has been on the showbefore too.
and so I really came into, theworld with him as I left my
career in, hotels andhospitality to come and join the
(02:49):
team with franchise systems.
So he is part of the reason itgot, started and I get to come
in and now, be a face and helpsupport.
Jeremy Julian (02:57):
Yeah.
No, and I love it.
And you, shared with me what youguys have been building, but at
a high level, why don't you giveour listeners just a preview as
to what you guys are doing, andthen we'll dig into why you guys
felt like it was such a criticalpiece to help franchisees and
franchisors to be successful intoday's day and age.
Erin Hooper (03:13):
Yeah, and I think a good way to talk about that
initially is where we started,because this did start with,
Troy and Pepper Lunch, when hegot brought on in 2023 with
them, they're looking to, reallybuild everything from the ground
up in North America.
So Pepper lunch was.
established, in over 17countries, but, not in the US
yet.
And so this started from a need,so a need to, build a brand, a
(03:35):
need to build a tech stack, andrunning up against issues that I
think a lot of brands face, asyou're trying to piece all of
these things together andworking with a ton of different
product.
and it went through a lot ofiterations and Jonathan
Whiteside, who's our founder,ended up coming, on the team,
with Troy, and he was taskedwith that to figure everything
out, and was trying to find asolution that worked and there
(03:57):
really wasn't a, solution.
And he said, let me build it.
So ended up building, franchisesystems from the beginning.
So what it, the overarching kindof concept is that it is a fully
end to end.
Operating system.
So its intention is to givefranchisors really complete
ownership and oversight of theirentire network, and really bring
together all these differentsilos we end up working in, into
(04:20):
one streamlined platform, so itallows for oversight and to be
able to scale and grow.
Jeremy Julian (04:26):
Yeah.
No, and I think it's a, I thinkit's pretty amazing.
'cause again, you and I talkedabout the amount of systems that
you guys are trying toconsolidate is pretty
significant.
Yeah.
I think it's no less than eightor nine different systems that
current franchise businesses aretypically starting with.
So when don't we start at thebeginning, because I know it
really as a franchise or you'reconstantly out trying to sell
new franchisees, you're tryingto attract attention.
(04:48):
Trying to get them to engagewith the brand and figure out,
from an onboarding perspective,who's out there who might be
looking to bring on this brand.
Is that kind of where you guysstarted with the product?
And then, why don't we walkthrough why that might be
different than some of the otherthings that are out there that
might be out off the shelf, CRMor off the shelf marketing
analytics or whatever else.
Erin Hooper (05:07):
Yeah.
So yeah, you're exactly right.
So when the concept was created,we started chronologically.
'cause where does it start?
Obviously in the beginning, weneed to be marketing our brand,
so we need to get the name outthere and.
That can be slow, that can bevery manual.
So from a sales process and Ican personally relate to that
coming from sales of events asyou're chasing down leads, it
(05:29):
feels very manual and it's veryreactive as opposed to being
proactive.
And so that is where it started.
So from the beginning, our firstsort of.
Department, we refer to them asmarketing.
And so this is your prospects,your cold leads, any lists you
get or, that you can upload.
And you can create customcampaigns to encourage them to
become, to buy into the salesprocess.
And they end up becoming a leadin our system.
(05:51):
And that's where we get into oursales department.
And then your sales.
Is A CRM, but it's more thanthat.
What we've created with thesales department is an applicant
portal, and what this does isallows brands to build this
journey for applicants to beable to go through, to
self-discover what the brand isall about.
It's fully customizable, ofcourse, so it's based on, how
(06:12):
you wanna represent as afranchisor, how you wanna
represent your brand to thesedifferent applicants.
And what it does is allows youto.
Self allows these leads to selfqualify, and you're able to hone
in and focus on the ones thatare showing the most interest.
and you can track everything.
So you can see when they signedup, how many steps they've gone
through already, and all ofthese different steps within the
portal, can be videos or fillingout information that you need.
(06:35):
And so you can very quicklydetermine who's qualified lead,
who's not, and it reduces a lotof this friction, this back and
forth and chasing and notknowing where you are.
Jeremy Julian (06:45):
and traditionally, Aaron, in that
case, that would typically be afranchise advisor that would be
taking that phone call andhaving to deal with one-on-one.
They may be dealing withsomebody that is interested,
that but doesn't have thefinancial qualifications, might
not have the geographic phonequalifications, might have zero
restaurant experience orwhatever those things are, and
that typically is a human thatwould be doing that.
(07:05):
I'm assuming, I don't know.
tell me what are peopletypically doing?
I think on the marketing sideit's, it's some collateral, it's
some emails, it's some textmessages, those kind of things,
which is great.
It's awesome, get those thingsin there.
So I think that's similar towhat you might have from a
Salesforce or from a, some ofthose, MailChimp or constant
contact, those type of things.
But when, once we get into thesales process, really, how is
(07:25):
that historically done?
Is it typically just like achecklist and somebody's
manually, or emailing going backand forth?
Is that typically how it's done?
Erin Hooper (07:32):
Yeah.
And you can see a lot where, youknow, an initial kind of reach
out to us for, for moreinformation.
And maybe you have a form, onyour website that might ask for
a little bit of criteria.
but that's all you get right upfront.
And then it's sitting on in yourlap.
So ball's in your court, whatare you gonna do with this?
Are you gonna call them?
Are you gonna email them?
How much time are we spending?
diving in deeper and like yousaid, jumping on that call.
(07:53):
And what are your initial kindof.
Qualifiers, is it previousexperience?
Is it multi-brand or,multi-unit?
Is it, access to funds, sowhatever that is.
Yes.
You usually have a sales team oran FSO or somebody who is
manually coming out, followingup with these leads and getting
that information.
whereas when you come into ourapplicant portal, those can be
some of your initial questions.
(08:14):
And as the sales representative,I'm now going in.
And I can see my leads that camein that day, the info that
they've already put into thesystem, and I can immediately
see if they're qualified or not.
So now it's either a quick emailtouch base, with your, thanks,
but no thanks.
Or it's still a phone call.
It's however you choose to dobusiness, but it just gives you
the data more, efficiently andquickly so you can make those
(08:35):
kinds of decisions.
Jeremy Julian (08:36):
No, and I love that idea that you guys have
built that.
One of the first questions thatI had when you were going
through the product with me ishow customizable is it?
We've had many franchise brandson the show before, and some of
them look for one thing andanother looks for another thing.
They sell franchises a differentway.
They, the Chick-fil-A model isvery different than the Jack in
the Box model First franchising,and again.
(08:56):
Love both of'em.
Both great brands, both do verysuccessful in their markets, but
they have a very different go tomarket strategy.
And so help our listeners tounderstand how customizable is
it to this specific brand versuslet's just rubber stamp it.
This is the way everybody shoulddo franchising.
learn from us.
We're better than everybodyelse.
Erin Hooper (09:12):
Yeah, exactly.
every single brand I've talkedto has, different qualifying
factors, different motivations,different needs, different
strategies for growth, and wecan't be successful if we're a
one stop shop or a one size.
Fits all because one size neverfits all.
So it needs to be customizable.
We need to be able to adapt andmode model to what it is that
(09:34):
the individual brands want andneed.
from a customizable standpoint,we are going to do the initial,
legwork.
So we're not gonna hand yousomething empty and say, go
ahead and build what you need.
we're gonna get you 85% of theway there, and then everything
is customizable.
So however you want.
This journey in the beginning togo.
If it's just watching videos, ifit's slider presentations forms,
(09:56):
you can create as many differentsteps as you like.
And it's very easy as the userto be able to go in and update
that, because that's one of theother things that you know, Troy
was experiencing in thebeginning is if I'm.
With, I have a brand or I havea, a SaaS product I'm using and
I need to go in and make achange.
It's gonna take me three monthsand, X number of dollars just to
(10:16):
be able to update something thatshould be mine.
So we really believe this dataand this platform is yours as
the brand, so you should be ableto edit it.
So everything's a no code build.
You're able to go in, updateyour portal.
You can change questions, addthings, delete things, hide it
so it all is very user friendlyand completely customizable into
how individual brands do theirbusiness.
Jeremy Julian (10:39):
I love that.
one other thing that you hadshared with me that I think is
magnificent about the product isthe fact that it's not just let
me pepper you with questions.
You can also intersperse thingsabout the brand.
Hey, we're looking in thisareas, this is why this such is
value proposition.
This is what we understand.
Whether that's videos, whetherthat's presentation, whether
(10:59):
that's Word documents that theyread or any kind of collateral
is that.
Is are you finding that back andforth allows them to get
ingratiated?
Because they may self-selectsaying, you know what, this is
not for me after I get throughthat process, is that some of
the stuff that you guys areseeing.
Erin Hooper (11:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
we talk about this from afranchisor perspective, but it's
also designed from a potentialfranchisees perspective.
your first impressions are themost important, how fast are we?
Getting back to people ortalking to them, or how are we
introducing our brand?
That's essential.
And so when you build it from afranchisee perspective, if it's
just question, that doesn't feellike a relationship yet.
(11:34):
So being able to mix and matchthis with, let me tell you what
it is that we are trying tobuild here and why we're excited
for you to be a part of it.
It balances this give get.
We're gonna give you a littlebit about us, but of course we
need to know some info too.
So let's balance this experienceand what it looks.
Psych so it creates, a processthat is, great for both sides.
someone's really getting tounderstand and have their
(11:55):
questions answered'causepotential franchisees are gonna
have a lot of questions, so wecan go through and really answer
those as you go, but also getinformation from them in the
meantime.
It's a win-win on both sides.
Jeremy Julian (12:07):
And I think from that perspective, the fact that
it's even a systemized thing.
'cause I've watched franchisecoordinators make these phone
calls and they ask onefranchisee, potential
franchisee, one set ofquestions, they make a whole
bunch of assumptions and thenthey find out later it's not
been working or they failed tolaunch or whatever those things
might be.
So the fact that you guys havegot this system where it's
iterative and it continues tolearn and continues to go
(12:29):
forward post this interactionof, I'm interested.
So we've got the leads outthere, we've got the.
Marketing.
Now I've gone through thisprocess of, yes, I'm interested,
I want to open a pepper lunch.
I wanna open up a pepper lunch.
And I know that there's onecoming close to home.
I'm pretty excited about it.
text Troy the other day saying,Hey dude, when is this coming?
I better get, friends and familyopening for that.
'cause it's close to the house.
(12:49):
I know exactly where it's goingnow.
but now I get past that.
Again, most franchise systems ormost of kind of the sales and
marketing side might cut offthere, but I know that's not
really your guys' plan.
So it's really takes you all theway through the rest of it.
So what would the next module orthe next kind of system be for
franchisors as they start tolaunch?
Erin Hooper (13:08):
Yeah.
I think that's one of the thingsthat we've seen and experienced
too, is that when you have allthese different platforms or
different ways that you're usingdifferent products, you're
moving people between one andthe other.
So you might have a pro, I'musing this product to target my
prospects.
I'm using this one to actuallytrack as my CRM to track my
leads.
And then as soon as we get intoonboarding, it's something else
new.
(13:28):
So that's what's different aboutfranchise systems too, is that
we brought this funnel all intoone location.
So the person in the data andall the info moves with them.
So we've gone from prospect,we've gone to sales, a lead, and
now they're going to become afranchisee.
Now they move into theirfranchisee portal.
And so they're able now to gothrough the same process they
just did as an applicant, butnow going through their
(13:50):
onboarding, and then they'retraining and then into full,
location management.
So we go into projectmanagement, site selection.
The whole nine all the way downthrough location launch and then
monitoring your business fromthereafter.
So it really brings everything,when we say end to end, it's end
to, we hope there is no end.
You just keep going.
Jeremy Julian (14:07):
Yeah.
Hopefully you keep growing andyou keep doing that.
And so we're, I guess as youguys go, and again, I've been
doing this for more time grayhairs in my goatee.
I've watched people fail from,they sign up all of these
franchisees.
I actually have a friend whobought a franchise three years
ago, still has not been able toget a training and get a site up
and running.
and he is disappointed and he isfrustrated and they have his
(14:28):
money.
And now it's tense because nowit's, they won't, And so how
does that typically happen,through franchise systems?
take, walk me through thatprocess because that is a hard
part.
Site selection's a big deal.
Training, get, it is a big deal.
Supply chain's a big deal.
All of these things are bigparts of things.
And help me understand how doyou guys build that out and help
franchisors and franchisees?
(14:50):
To get into a place where theycan be successful is going back
to that same idea of systems andprocesses that you've got,
checklists, walk me through someof that, Aaron.
Erin Hooper (14:59):
you're entirely right.
I think that a lot of times yourgoal and focus is we need to
self franchisees, selffranchises, and then if you
don't fulfill those promises orwe stop right there and there's
not a plan going forward, thisultimately isn't a path to
success.
Have to have good structure andgood processes going forward.
And what we've built and createdis a system that's going to
(15:20):
continue that experience for thefranchisee and continue that
oversight from the franchisor tosee what's going on.
So let's say you have someonethat comes on board and they've
done a 10 store deal.
So the franchisees is going toconvert into their app, into
their portal, and now they have10 different location.
Projects that are automaticallycreated.
(15:40):
and these project templates,again, are customizable, as you
mentioned, very flexible, butit's all customizable to what
that process looks like for eachbrand.
So it goes through and, there'sgoing to be those normal steps
everyone goes through in termsof site selection, vendor
onboarding, ordering product,getting the stores ready, and
all of that is built in to thisintegrated and really.
(16:01):
Task oriented project managementsystem.
So instead of it being, Hey,here's a checklist, here's all
the things you need to do on apiece of paper, what this does
is really allows you to puttask.
orient or it, it does tasks thatare specifically designed to,
encourage movement.
So this, if your first one is,Hey, I need to fill out this
(16:21):
form, or if a task is going tobe onboard with a vendor, it
isn't just, Hey, let's onboardwith this vendor and you put a
check mark at the end.
It's, this is your point ofcontact.
Their calendar is integratedinto the system, book a call,
and now you're onboarding withyour vendor in a more seamless
way rather than here's the 19different people you need to
reach out to.
Good luck.
and as the projects go on, itcan be if then, so if you've
(16:44):
done this step, then you get tomove to the next one.
yeah.
So it
Jeremy Julian (16:47):
so even in that case, so let's take my friend
who is trying to open up afranchise.
He has struggled because he,whoever the guy is, the real
estate person, it's a brand thatdoes do drive through and they
need a drive through.
And it's a, it's a specificvertical concept.
It's desserts, it's streets,it's, beverages, whatever.
And so they can't be in certainareas where there's a beverage
only concept.
But they need the throughput,but they need the traffic.
(17:09):
And so site selection is a bigdeal.
They understand that, I meanfor, if I were to ask anybody
out there, site selection isprobably the largest, area of
opportunity for any of thesebrands as restaurants
specifically, because you needthe traffic in order to drive
the business.
And so in his case, had theybeen on franchise systems, what
would have looked differently?
He would've known, here's myguy, that's my real estate guy
(17:30):
that I need to be working with.
Is that kind of, again, I wannatry and paint the picture that
says I have a.
Current friend who's strugglingwith this and had that brand
been using this, what would havelooked different?
Erin Hooper (17:40):
Yeah, so exactly any of the supporting team from
the brand side is going to beinto the platform as well.
And so if part of those steps isthis is who you need to work
with on site selection, theplatform is designed to really
track all of this.
however, individual, if there'sindividual, processes or ways
that we're going through anddetermining, the best sites,
that person is going to bedirectly integrated into the
(18:02):
platform to be able to workdirectly with the franchisee.
So they know, and there's atimeline built out.
So if this is a, typically a twomonth project or a three month
project, this is how long it'sgonna take for your site
selection.
So you have some visibility intothat too.
This isn't an overnight, thisisn't, something that we're
gonna have a site that's alreadyready to go.
This is a process, but we'regonna work with you on it.
And you have resources to beable to continue that
(18:24):
conversation.
So it's not just radio silence.
Jeremy Julian (18:27):
Love that.
And as a vendor who sells intothe franchise systems, I guess
help me understand even as avendor, why this would be so
critical.
Because I, I love the fact, andagain, you and I talked about
this, when we had ourpresentation of it, like we
struggle because sometimeswe're, we get forgotten about,
we get forgotten about, we sellpoint of sale.
Anybody that's listening to thecall, this show for any length
of time knows that we sell pointof sale and we get the call that
(18:48):
says.
Hey, we forgot to tell you we'reopening the store in two weeks.
We need a system and we have asix week timeline, and now we're
stuck and now we're robbing fromPeter to pay Paul.
Or they might have to wait.
They're opening, and again, samething.
I've seen it happen with hoodsand stoves and ovens and all of
it.
And so with that, does thevendor get to participate in
this conversation?
And if so, Say your FDD says youhave to select this point of
(19:10):
sale.
Do they get to play a part inknowing both the franchisee
knows, Hey, here's who you needto contact and the franchise or,
and the supplier, partner,whoever that is.
It could be your food supplier,it could be your HVAC supplier,
whoever it is.
Do they get to interact withinthis platform with those people?
Erin Hooper (19:27):
Absolutely.
Because you would, you would notbe surprised, but there are so
many
Jeremy Julian (19:30):
no.
I know.
I've been living it my wholelife and I'm only one portion of
it, but I, we literally sentsomebody, I think I told you
this story.
We sent somebody to a property,they forgot to order their front
door.
It was a glass swinging door,and they're like, Hey, we're
ready to open.
And we're like, dude, you haveno lock on the door.
And we shipped all of ourequipment, so we laugh about it,
but it's true.
But somebody needed to decide,Hey.
(19:52):
What was the etching that wasgonna go on the glass that was
gonna go on this door?
And they didn't get the etchingdone.
It was three weeks delayed andthey delayed the opening, thus
delaying revenue, creation forit.
So sorry to interrupt you, butit happens every day.
Erin Hooper (20:04):
every day, every time.
And you would just, you wouldthink that there would be
something that's like, how didwe get here?
How did this happen?
How did we not keep organized ontop of that?
But it's because there's so manydifferent parts and pieces.
Somebody probably needed toapprove the design for the door.
Someone that needed to approvethe word, the vendor needed to
get a quote back.
you go back and forth and onething gets missed and suddenly
we don't have a front door.
(20:25):
So it's an exact, it's a perfectexample.
So yes, the way that this is,that our project management is
built out is to invite thosevendors.
That you're using into theplatform.
Now we have two ways about this.
There is going to be, if thereare certain brands that in their
FDD, they require use of X, Y,and z different vendors, they
will then be automatically builtinto, that this project that
says, Hey, we need to onboardwith your POS.
(20:48):
Have your calendar synced in,you're able to book something
with them and whatever theprocess then looks like.
if there's materials that canactually be put into, franchise
systems, we can do that.
If you, there's a trainingvideo, if there's a step-by-step
guide, if there's a form thathas to be filled out before this
vendor can really onboard you,we can design all of that within
this project.
So now you're going through andall of these steps are built in
(21:09):
and you have those, okay, wecan't move on to.
to this next phase of openinguntil you've confirmed that we
have a POS system or we have afront door, or we ordered
silverware, like any kind ofexample.
But this allows you not only toensure that your franchisees are
ordering from the right vendors,the right products.
but it allows, the franchisorand whoever's overseeing this
(21:30):
pro, this franchisee to be ableto go in and make sure, so
you're seeing this, it's notcalling up and saying, Hey,
how's it going?
And you hear the, oh yeah, we'regreat.
Everything's good.
We're on track.
And then lo and behold, yourealize there's no pos.
Jeremy Julian (21:43):
Yeah, that they ran down a Spartan final for
napkins'cause they need to opentomorrow.
And they didn't have
Erin Hooper (21:47):
exactly.
So you know, all of that.
Jeremy Julian (21:49):
Been there, done that.
seen it, seen the silverwarething, the plastic silverware
that they had to go buy in thelittle packets that, it, it
just, it happens because there'snot systems like that out there.
Is that
Erin Hooper (21:59):
That is fair.
And so what, it really is beingable to bring all this together
in a space that lets you, itguides you as the franchisee.
So it's that support system too.
And it's, and it's visibilitylike it's seeing what's coming
next.
So what do I need to startthinking about, but what do I
need to think about?
12 months out versus what do Inot really need to think about
until three months?
(22:19):
So you're prioritizing your timeand you're making this more
efficient.
And this, you said earlier, thisdelayed opening that costs
money, and that's exactly theopposite of what we're all in
this business for,
Jeremy Julian (22:29):
Yeah, absolutely.
and again, just to recap, so youguys help with the onboarding,
bringing them into the system,you help them get open, but I've
seen a lot of franchisefranchisees do all of those
parts amazing, but then suck atmanaging the stores after they
open.
So talk me through how franchisesystems can help with post.
Go live post opening.
How do we make sure that thestores are running efficiently,
(22:51):
that they're taking care ofguests, that we're getting guest
feedback, that sales are wherethey need to be, that labor's
where they need to be, that foodscores are where they need to
be, that reviews are where theyneed to be.
'cause I know all of those,again, been doing this a really
long time.
I've watched lots of brands sellhundreds of units and then fail.
I've watched lots of brands thatpick the wrong locations and
fail, not manage all, theymanage the front side great, but
(23:12):
then they suck at making surethat they're delivering the
product in the way that theyneed to.
So how does franchise systemshelp to ensure that Pepper Lunch
is gonna be able to get to 2,300, 4, 400 stores in the US and
be successful?
Because nothing hurts a brandworse than upset franchisees
that aren't pouring into theirbrand'cause they're not making
any money and they're notsuccessful.
Erin Hooper (23:31):
Yeah, we talked about that first hurdle of just
getting the franchise sale, andthat's where it can drop off.
But here's your next drop off.
We've now hit the finish line ofour location launch.
We're live and everyone takes adeep breath and is Cool.
We made it.
But this is really now just thestart.
I joke that we're end to end andnot really an end because we
don't want you to end.
We want you to continue to besuccessful and what are the
(23:51):
tools that you need to continuethat as once you're open.
And so this is where ouroperation side is now coming
into full view.
So in this, in the platform,you're now able to manage your
full location.
From everything and you get intogranular details.
So starting off with, hours ofoperation, you can update that
from the platform out toeverywhere your listings are.
(24:13):
You're, we're integrated withthe POS systems that you use, so
you're able to quickly access,all of your data and reporting,
say from your POS system.
We're also going into SEO andreputation, so we can see what
your feedback is, what yourguests are saying.
You're able to respond to yourguests.
In the system to be able to keepthat relationship going and know
(24:33):
where it is that you stand.
and then it continues fullmarketing.
So we have an entire marketingcalendar that's built in so you
can schedule out, if it's amonth out, two months out,
schedule out your posts.
And as a franchisor, if you'rehaving your franchisees do their
individual marketing, thisallows you.
Still have that oversight.
So I can still go in, see whatthe stores are posting, make
sure it aligns, for the brandmarketing and messaging and how
(24:56):
you wanna be conveyed.
but now you've scheduled all ofyour, monthly postings all
within the platform, and you'reable to, our AI really supports
in this sense too, of, let's sayyou're.
Putting out, marketing posts andsomething really takes off.
Now the AI SMART sees this andsays, Hey, this went really
well.
Let's do that again.
Or Let's build off of this tocontinue this growth.
(25:18):
And now you have smart marketingwithin the platform as well.
But you keep going.
There's even more.
So you go in.
Jeremy Julian (25:24):
I was gonna say we made it 25 minutes without
talking about ai, so I'm proudof you for that.
because all too often,especially on a tech show, I get
to hear about ai about 30seconds in, we got all of the ai
and, as I, I talk to a lot ofoperators, they're like, I don't
care about ai.
I just want it to tell me whatto do to make my business
better.
Which at the end of the day.
What that AI for marketing isgonna do is gonna tell you these
(25:44):
posts are resonating with yourguests.
Go post more of this, whetherthat's pictures of your food or
whatever else.
So what else is it that you guysare putting into the platform
that you guys think are gonnahelp operators to, to operate
better?
Because really, again, at the,once we've got'em sold, once
we've got'em opened, now it's,and again.
We pay for secret shoppers.
I personally go out to brandsthat we work with and I'll text
(26:04):
the CEO.
I'll text Troy and be like,dude, this sucked.
Here's a picture of my food.
This was bad.
And again, it's not a, I'm notgonna go post it online, but I
do that for friends in theindustry, but people that hurts
a brand quite a bit.
So talk me through some of theother things that you guys are
helping to make sure that peopleare successful with
Erin Hooper (26:20):
Yeah, we'll come, I'll say that.
And then really quick back onthe AI piece.
'cause I agree, I think it canbe a real buzzword right now.
And so it feels very much oh,it's AI this and AI that, we
have a well established kind ofAI support.
That's very natural andingrained in the platform.
We can talk more about thatlater, but, but I agree with you
on that front.
but some of the other thingslike you mentioned, we go into,
audits.
So you're always gonna have,that monitoring and that's where
(26:43):
you're talking about continuedsuccess.
Let's make sure we're doing itright.
Plates are, dishes are createdthe right way.
in the beginning everything isSOPs and how we're doing this
and everything is really by thebook.
And then that can fall offpretty quickly once you get into
different habits or bad habits.
And so keeping up with that.
So not only do you have, say,training checklists, SOPs, your
team is invited into theplatform to have access to that.
(27:05):
So even your line level staffcan get an invite to come into
the platform.
Everything is role-basedpermissioning, so they do not
need access to sales and FTDsand anything above, Side of what
their purview is.
But if they need openingchecklists, closing checklists,
training modules for refreshers,and, okay, I'll say another AI p
that's in this, we're gonna havean AI search capability that if
(27:26):
you come in and just say, Hey,what's the capacity of the fryer
oil, again, it's going to searchall of the data, the documents
you have uploaded in theplatform and can either tell you
where to find that answer orjust tell you what the answer
is.
So you're able to use it againin a smart way.
But this gives a resource.
For, from line level to you'restill your store managers of
access to assets that they need.
(27:47):
you're also having audits.
So you're doing audits of thestore.
you're able to have all of thistake place through the platform.
And then if there is something,say that fails in an audit, it's
going to automatically createtasks that are then going to be
assigned to the appropriatepeople.
Can help rectify that.
So if it's visibility, if it's aminor, maybe it doesn't need to
go up to the franchisor level,but if it's a, important thing
(28:09):
that's failed, anybody thatneeds to know will end up
knowing about that.
But then it doesn't just stopthere and say, oh, you failed.
It's going to put the steps inplace of what we need to do to
rectify this.
What was the training that wasmissed?
Was there a checklist that theywere supposed to be using that
they weren't?
It's gonna figure that out andthen let you know, here's what
we need to do to not let thishappen again.
Jeremy Julian (28:30):
Got you a similar idea, Aaron, on, sales and
labor, again, you guys havecertain food cost metrics, you
have certain labor metrics, byregion obviously, but are you
guys helping to say, Hey, salesare way down.
Let's talk and call, and thefranchise coordinator and those
kind of things.
Have you guys gotten to thatpoint?
Because again, there's thingsyou can do to help drive top
line sales to reduce costs whensales are down, they got bad
(28:52):
weather.
Utah and they got a snowstormnow, Hey, we gotta cut labor
faster.
We gotta make sure we don't haveas much supply.
What, whatever it might be.
Are you guys helping at thatpoint yet?
Erin Hooper (29:00):
there's going to be, I think one of the most
important things is when you'retrying to analyze success or
lack thereof.
So if you're trying to look atsomething and say, Hey, we're
not doing so well, why You needdata?
In order to do that, we need toknow what it is.
So when you're aggregating allof these different, points of
information, you're able to thenget a clearer picture as to
what's going on.
So you're able to see reviewsand if there's, those are
(29:22):
consistently providing acertain, messaging that's gonna
give you more of a.
Clear pathway, but because youcan integrate everything from
your sales, popular items,popular times, customer
feedback, and then even yourteam level.
So your team's invited in andyou can have different chats or
different areas for them to beable to communicate with each
other.
You now have a sense of yourteam morale too, so you're able
(29:43):
to see all of these differentthings and now make more
informed decisions and seewhat's.
Going on or what we need tofocus on or help improve.
and that's one of the, thevalues and the power of having
everything in one sort ofdashboard to be able to see, and
analyze and manage.
Jeremy Julian (29:57):
Yeah.
I'm gonna pivot a little bithere.
Aaron, we talked about this.
What else out there does thisother than 12 different systems?
Because, I genuinely, and I saythis, I get the privilege to sit
at the forefront of a lot ofpieces of technology.
I've been in the industry for areally long time, and when I got
(30:18):
a chance to see some of whatAaron and the team have been
building, I went.
There's gotta be something elseout there that does this.
And I then went on a late night,chat, GT search to go try and
find some of this stuff.
And there's not, there'sportions that fix the fourth
portion.
There's portions that pick, fixthe second portion.
There's lots of different backoffice tools that are aggregated
that fix the third portion, butI was not able to find it.
(30:40):
Is that kind of why you guysended up building it?
Erin Hooper (30:43):
That's exactly why, and I will be honest, I had the
same thought that went throughmy head.
Jeremy Julian (30:47):
It's like there's gotta be something out there,
right?
Erin Hooper (30:49):
like, how is this makes too much sense.
So what am I missing here?
But that was exactly where itstemmed from, where we're trying
to find something that solvesthe issues.
You have individual productsthat do, that do some pieces of
it, and you need to bring allthese different things together.
But the other thing that's veryprominent right now is the SaaS
fatigue.
there's so many differentproducts and costs can just.
(31:11):
Add up and it's minuscule.
But if you've got 19, pepper,lunch, use 19 different SaaS
products, it adds up.
And so coming from that andtrying to find something like
this, to your point, therereally isn't there.
There, there are some who areclose, but just doesn't take it
to the depth and the level thatwe've built.
when we started this.
It.
we said this is what we need todo and honestly, ideas grow and
(31:33):
we, if it started in one pieceof it, I really just need a
better CRM.
But then it was like, what's thenext step?
So this is what Jonathan, his,how his mind works, he goes,
what happens next?
And what happens once the, itbecomes a franchisee?
And what about this and why isthat all manual?
Why are we using spreadsheetsand why are we introducing
people by email?
Why don't we just bring it allinto one?
And so that's just where we saidthis is what it has to be.
(31:55):
This needs to be everythingbecause there's a need for it.
and there isn't a solve.
So let's be that solve.
Jeremy Julian (32:02):
Yeah.
No, and I think it's incredible.
again, I'm gonna pivot one moretime.
You guys are eating your own dogfood, as they say.
So at PEPPER lunch, you know thebrand that, that your husband
and, dad work for are working atPepper Lunch using the system.
Is that, were you guys clientnumber one?
Did you guys build it foryourselves and then decide, Hey,
we're gonna commercialize this?
Is that kind of how the wholething went about?
Erin Hooper (32:20):
Yeah, exactly.
It actually did really startwith, Hey, this is just the
solution that we need, and we'rejust gonna build it.
And it was gonna be internal forpepper lunch.
and then as it continued togrow, and this idea really
became into fruition of it beinga full end operating system,
there was really this light bulbof Hey, other brands could
really benefit from this too.
Why don't we actually turn thisinto a complete product that can
(32:42):
be available?
and Pepper Lunch is the Alphabrand.
So everything's tested throughthem.
They've been on the platformfor, almost 18 months now, and
we run everything through them.
and it just provides, it's.
Built by franchisors forfranchisors is how we like to
say, because you said it earliertoo, of we're not handing you a
product and saying this isexactly what you need.
(33:02):
it's going to fix everythingwhen we don't know what the
problems are.
that can be a real challengewhere you have somebody that
develops and they think they'resolving for issues that
franchisors face, but they'renot.
So this came from real worldexperience, the real problems we
were experiencing and feelingand built to solve those.
So there's a lot of feedbackthat's put in, and we do have
other brands.
(33:22):
We have several other brandsthat are on as well as our beta
testers who have, come on earlyand are providing us the
feedback as well.
And one of the things I am mostproud of is that our team is
incredibly flexible and open andresponsive to feedback, because
as you say, you build somethingand we think it works perfectly
for the way that it's built, andyou get some feedback and you're
(33:43):
like, man, you're right.
Let's do that.
And so we can make thosechanges, we can make those
updates, and we can flex.
So if there's, ways or systemsthat you're just a brand's Hey,
I have to use this is core intohow I've built my entire, brand
or strategy.
let's talk about it.
If we can integrate it, make itwork.
We, we wanna have thoseconversations as well.
So we look at this as apartnership.
(34:03):
we really wanna come in and helpreally do what we say we wanna
do.
We wanna help brands grow andscale in a way that is
efficient, and gives themsuccess.
And so it doesn't, it, it onlymakes sense that we work
together as a team on that tomake sure that it's successful
for each brand that joins withus.
Jeremy Julian (34:20):
and I'm certain that some of the reverse
feedback, you're talking toother franchise groups and
they're going, oh, we shouldadopt this at PEPPER lunch'cause
it'll make us better as a brand.
I'm certain that's happening.
The other thing that I guess,for those that are less familiar
with the Pepper Lunch brand, asAaron said, is.
huge overseas and they've comeinto the US and are starting to
take the US market, and growingquite rapidly.
(34:40):
I know outside of Mark, there'salso Paul Tran who has run a lot
of other successful franchisebrands in the past, so I'm sure
that's a another, ace in your,ace up your sleeve that can
help.
hey, this is how it worked atHalal.
This is how it worked at Roll'emUp, or any of the other brands
that he's worked with.
Is that, is that where some ofthat feedback comes from
Erin Hooper (34:57):
Absolutely.
And Paul's expertise, on thesales side, but we have him
twofold.
So he's on the franchise salesfor Pepper lunch, but he's also
a Pepper Lunch franchisee.
So we're launching theoperations side of this within
the next month.
and that's going to be a lot ofthat feedback straight from him
is that you, you see this onboth sides.
You're experiencing it from, asales and trying to market out
(35:17):
and get.
more franchisees to come onboard, and you're an existing
franchisee, so how is thisworking for you on that end as
well?
So it's wonderful that we'reable to have that direct contact
and connect to get really great,feedback as well.
Jeremy Julian (35:29):
Yeah, and I think, some of my favorite
interviews are those that arepeople that scratched their own
itch of a problem that they had,and they said, you know what?
We gotta go figure this thingout.
And, there's probably sometherapy session that we all need
to sit through being restaurantpeople for our whole lives.
But, so Aaron, how would peopleengage?
what does that engagement looklike?
How do they learn more ifthey're out there and they're
like, I want to be like them.
I, after we talked, and I knowyou, I said this before I hit
(35:50):
the record button.
I have at least 10 brands andI'm like, oh my gosh.
please just sign up for thisthing.
'cause it'll make life so mucheasier for me as a supplier
partner outside of the factthat, for them it would just
help organize their lives in somuch of a better, and easier
way.
Erin Hooper (36:04):
Yeah.
So great.
Next steps.
I love, I connect personallywith everyone who's coming in
to, explore the platform.
We'll do a demo together whileI'll be able to really show you
how it works from the Pepperlunch side too.
so our website is.
Franchise systems.ai, or you canemail me directly.
I'm justaaron@franchisesystems.ai.
and we'll get together and havea chat and I like to get to know
whoever I'm talking with aboutwhat are the pain points that
(36:26):
you feel, because I'm sayingthat we have a franchisor on our
team who's providing the issues,but as we've talked about, every
brand is different.
So I need to hear specificallywhat it is that you're
struggling with or what's beenthe thing that you feel like is
keeping you from growth.
And then let's talk about howfranchise systems.
Fixes that for you.
we like the conversations to bepersonal and, let's get on a
call, talk through all of that,and take it from there.
Jeremy Julian (36:49):
Awesome.
one last question that I'm gonnajust, throw at you, and if
you're not at a place to answer,what's been the biggest surprise
that you've come up with?
what's the biggest learning thatthe team has gotten getting into
the software business and trulytrying to put a stamp on the
market and stamp on, on what itis that, that you guys can do to
help make the world a betterplace?
Erin Hooper (37:09):
That is a good question.
I think that one of the thingswe, there's a balance between
figuring out how you can solvemultiple problems and also
understanding that you're not.
You're not going to beeverything to everyone.
We are never, we want our ideasto be big.
Our platform, has become thisfull end-to-end system, but
we're never gonna be a POS.
(37:29):
Product, like product, that'snot where we are.
So it's this balance of let'ssolve for the things we know we
can and we can do well, andlet's partner with where we,
where it doesn't make sense forus.
and I think that's a good thingto have.
So we're able to keep theserelationships with other
vendors, with other things thatmake a lot of sense and are
having great success in theindustry.
we're not trying to be,absolutely everything, all in
(37:49):
one.
We're just gonna be, 90% of it.
Jeremy Julian (37:52):
I love it.
thank you for sharing, Aaron.
Thank you for sharing the story.
I love, since you shared more indepth and shared some
screenshots and stuff, it'sbeen, bouncing around in my
head.
So I'm glad that I got, got achance to do the interview, get
things out to our audience guys.
Like I said at the onset, I knowyou guys got lots of choices, so
thank you guys for hanging outwith us this week.
If you haven't already checkedout, franchise Systems ai,
please go do And lastly, if youhaven't already subscribed to
(38:14):
the show, please Give us asubscribe on any of your
favorite platforms and make it agreat day.
Erin Hooper (38:20):
Thanks, Jeremy.
Thanks for listening to TheRestaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit restaurant technologyguys.com for tips, industry
insights, and more to help yourun your restaurant better.
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